Eating my way through Seattle

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Eating my way through Seattle

After WAY too many years of reading and getting all sorts of superb recommendations from you all, I wanted to finally take some time to share some great food I've had here in Seattle. I grew up out here and I've been back for the month for work. And man - you guys have it good on the food front. This has kind of been like a culinary tour of Seattle for me.

Favorites so far:

CAFE PRESSE: Croque Madame. Wow. That was awfully good.

MATT'S IN THE MARKET: I've read all about how this place has fallen off, but i found the octopus to be among the best I've tasted anywhere, including while living in Spain. Short Ribs (the special) were spectacular.

LONG PROVINCIAL (http://longprovincial.com): REALLY enjoyed the squid satay (as do most, I know) and the Long Provincial Crepe was very, very good.

LA CARTA DE OAXACA: I thought their mole and their chile rellenos were superb (I was dubious, our server was adamant we try them). All told, this was some of the best Mexican I've had North of L.A.

SAVATDEE THAI: Loved this food. Went with the Lao menu and it was a winner: Nhem Mou and Gai Yang were both exceptional. Pad see ew off the thai menu was great too. Sticky rice and mango were excellent for dessert.

MEE SUM PASTRY: I dream of their pork Hom-Bow and red bean sesame balls when I go to sleep at night in Colorado.

PASEO: Went to the spot on Shilshole and I love this place. Cuban and chicken legs are just so crazy good.

WILLOWS INN: I will not claim too much expertise or experience that is all that extensive. In the world of top-echelon restaurants, I'm still a novice. I've eaten at Frasca in Boulder a good few times, Kelly Liken in Vail, Tasting menu at Rovers, and a couple of other standouts. That said, the meal I had at Willows Inn was head and shoulders above anything I have every eaten previously. Every one of the eleven courses we were served was executed flawlessly. The ingredients were uniformly superb - from the poached crab with seaweed, to baby radishes from their farm. I could wax on and on about this for a post in and of itself. Perhaps I will later. For now, suffice to say I was totally blown away. This was the best food I have ever eaten, and served with great wine. The servers were individually charming, friendly, and knowledgeable about every ingredient. We sat alone with the our party of four at the chef's table and left feeling like the kitchen staff were good friends. We paid about $250 each for four of us to stay at the Farm Yurt for a night, eat dinner and drink well, and enjoy a delicious breakfast in the morning. More than I've paid for a meal before, but totally worth it for me.

Pretty good:

JADE GARDEN: had GREAT dim sum here the other Sunday. reasonable long wait, but I really enjoyed the Jasmine Tea and a lot of the steamed specialties. Pork Hom-bow, shu-mai, ha-gow, sticky-rice were pretty lights out. I sure wish I was better at ordering though.

POPPY: Ordered one meat and one vegetarian Thali. A number of the vegetarian tastes were superb - cauliflower was LIGHTS OUT delicious. Naan was fluffy and delicious. Green-roasted halibut was a bit over-cooked. All in all, pretty darn good but not making the headlines.

ETTA'S: I really enjoyed the crab (see above), but the albacore tuna was dry and overcooked, and the famous salmon dish left a lot to be desired. The salmon cut wasn't as good as I'd hoped, and the again a little overcooked. I've liked this place in the past, but was just not as impressed this go round.

VENTANA: Happy hour deal is sort of crazy cheap... loved the ribs, the rest of what we ordered (I think sliders, some salmon and mussels really wasn't as good). Fun place and a great deal though.

SERIOUS PIE: Waited and waited and waited, and got some pretty great pie out of it. I really liked the yukon potato. The Fiddleheads and Pancetta pizza was crazy good.

KANAME IZAKAYA: Pretty good. Loved the octopus dumplings and the black cod. Sashimi plate - while pretty straightforward - was a great deal and enjoyable. Just nice to eat izakaya.

SAMURAI NOODLE: I have loved this place in the past, but found the broth to be overly salty and ramen served a little cold this time. I'm going back again and hoping it's better

Kind of disappointing:

SEATOWN: Really not that great. I was disappointed. Aside from the smoked sturgeon appetizer, I generally thought the food was just okay. Crab was super high quality, but was served with Hellman's mayonnaise - I guess (see below) having had the same thing at Etta's with totally delicious butter, I would have thought "why not pursue an execution you know is better." Instead they served it wih Hellman's MayoService was ABYSSMAL - guy had zero knowledge of the wine list, and was just generally kind of unpleasant. Roast chicken was good, but not nearly as memorable as I would have expected.

STEELHEAD DINER: Just not that good. Poor execution all around. Food was generally poorly prepared

RED LANTERN: This place was recommended by the Seattle Met magazine and a couple friends. It was totally disappointing. If I'm wrong, it could be because I am really not that great at ordering Chinese. Anyone got recommendations for things to order there or elsewhere in the ID for chinese?

BOAT STREET CAFE: So we went here for brunch, and the ingredients were excellent. I could tell that this place had the capacity to be excellent. But the service we had was truly terrible - got my entree wrong, failed to deliver a biscuit we ordered, and our server acted like my pretty polite questions along the way were totally out of line. My scrambled eggs with mushrooms were pretty bland and disappointing. I was not that impressed - especially when I could tell that the food could have been pretty great.

Still on the list - while i have a smidgen of money and haven't gained enough wait to immobilize myself:

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